Canucks Make It Two

Image courtesy TSN.ca

It was not pretty but the Vancouver Canucks managed to overcome the loss of their number one forward, Daniel Sedin, by scraping out a 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars in the shootout. It was not all good news as Sami Salo left the game in the first period with what appeared to be a knee or leg injury. Salo's history does not help as he has been a notoriously injury prone player.

The game started off poorly for the Canucks as they paraded to the penalty box starting with Kevin Bieksa under a minute into the game. Salo followed that up with his own four and a half minutes later and the Dallas Stars made the Canucks pay. Well, not quite as Rick Rypien deflected a pass into the Canucks net, giving the Stars an early lead. Things would settle down for Vancouver after that and Ryan Kesler would even things up on the power play for the Canucks with a wrist shot from the right side over Marty Turco's shoulder.

For much of the second period it was quite sluggish as both teams traded a few chances each but not much else. It was not until the final few minutes that the Canucks struck again off the stick of Alex Burrows on the power play to give the Canucks their first lead of the game.

In the third, the Dallas Stars took over putting the pressure on the undermanned Canuck defense core. Brad Richards would tie the game up for the Stars just under five minutes as he tucked the puck in at the side of the net behind Luongo who was slightly out of position. But despite being outplayed, the Canucks answered quickly as Willie Mitchell scored his second of the year off a pass from behind the net by Henrik Sedin. The Canucks would hold on to that lead until the late stages when Jamie Benn scored from a centering pass by Mike Ribeiro just as Marty Turco was leaving the net for an extra attacker.

Nothing was settled in overtime with both teams getting a couple of chances each. Alain Vigneault elected to shoot first going with Kyle Wellwood. Wellwood, as he does so often, went to his go to move where he dekes forehand, backhand, forehand in close and scored. Brad Richards was first to go for the Dallas Stars and was stopped by a poke check from Roberto Luongo. Ryan Kesler shot second for the Canucks and he snapped a shot over Turco to give the Canucks a 2-0 lead in the shootout. Mike Ribeiro was forced into a must score situation but was stopped on a wrist shot by Roberto Luongo.

The Vancouver Canucks will now enter yet another prolonged break from games as they will not be in action again until Friday when they return to the Saddledome in Calgary to face their divisional foes, the Calgary Flames. These two teams met in the season opener where Calgary jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and held on for a 5-3 victory. The Flames lost their first game of the season last Friday to these same Dallas Stars by a score of 5-2.

Three Stars:

1. Henrik Sedin (0G, 2A, 2 Shots)
2. Mike Ribeiro (1G, 1A, 3 Shots)
3. Willie Mitchell (1 G, 0 A, 1 Shot)

Canucks next game: Friday vs. Calgary Flames

Oh, and Zac Efron made a surprise appearance at tonight's game.

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